Friday, December 30, 2016

Hello again, it's December 30th, 2016 and I'm here with the last cards for this year. Since the next mail delivery in Canada won't be until Tuesday January 2nd, 2017 , these are definitely the last cards of the year. So let's get right to it.

This first card is an interior view of Lerins Abbey, a monastery on the island of Saint-Honorat, on the French Riviera. There has been a monastic community there since the 5th century. Construction on the current monastery buildings began around 1073.

Dominique used a 2015 stamp showing a Gallic Rooster, an unofficial national symbol of France as a nation ; as opposed to Marianne representing France as a State and Republic.

A little warning may be necessary here - if you're hungry maybe you shouldn't look at this next card. It's a whole lot of delicious foods on Ravindra's card from Sri Lanka.

Ravindra used a beautiful Christmas stamp from this year.

I have a train card next for the train postcard collectors out there. I know at least two - Ana and Ravindra. Shown is SBB2978, a steam locomotive of the Swiss Federal Railways. It was constructed between 1913 and 1917 and was so powerful it received the nickname " elephant " .

It might be a train postcard but it arrived with an aviation related stamp, Nicole used a nice stamp showing a 1938 Spitfire.

The Mermaid of Warsaw is up next. The statue is located in the centre of Warsaw's Old Town. The Mermaid is a symbol of Warsaw, represented on the city's coat of arms.

This card arrived with a couple of 50 year old stamps. Quite a nice bonus. Ewa used 2 stamps from a set of 6 National Industries and both had tabs attached.

Well, that's it for active cards today but I want to end with another 2 of Bruce's Maximum cards from Bophuthatswana.

The first one shows Mmabatho International Airport, and the second shows a plane of Mabatho Air Services. Both date from Oct 1986 and both have stamps matching the cards.

There you have it, the cards that close out the year. Just in case I don't get back here tomorrow, Happy New Year to you all. I hope all you collectors find your mailboxes filled with cards over and over again. I also want to thank the many people out there who took time to drop a postcard or 2 , and some many , many more times than that, in the mail to me. You all made my day over and over. You know who you are.
Thanks for today's cards go out to Dominique, Ravindra, Nicole, Ewa and Bruce. Thanks to one and all.

Saturday, December 24, 2016

It's Christmas Eve 2016 - Merry Christmas To One and All

Once again as Christmas Day is just about upon us, I want to take this opportunity to wish all my fellow postcard collectors , cover and stamp collectors and bloggers , along with all my readers a very Merry Christmas. My Christmas wishes for all of you are again summed up inthe 3 Christmas stamps issued by Canada Post in 2007. Hope , Joy, and Peace. What more could we ask for ?

Friday, December 23, 2016

The shopping 's all done, the wrapping not quite, the tree is trimmed and we are expecting 10 cm of the white stuff today and another 5 cm tomorrow. So a very white Christmas for sure.
Just time to sneak in a little update before my Lovely Teena and I, our two sons and their families go out for dinner. This will be the 21st annual dinner , always just a few days before Christmas. This is our Christmas Tradition. It started with just four of us and now we are family of eleven.

Steffi used a Flower definitive and a 2015 stamp celebrating Mountain Academy in Freiburg, the Jewel of the Black Forest.

Next is this pretty blond , all dressed up , expecting to go out obviously. A neat use for leaves no doubt.

Irina sent this card from Simferopol, Crimea. We all know what happened in that area a couple years ago. Irina wrote that she recently visited Kiev and found it a beautiful city. She also wrote that Ukraine is a wonderful country. It must be difficult for her, having wrote those things, to now accept that she is living for all intents and purposes in Russia, or at least under Russia's thumb. One only has to look at the Russian stamp on the card. It was issued this year but depicts a 1941 war scene.

Now for a Christmas greeting from Czech Republic, posted from Brno. The Christmas festival in Brno starts on November 25th with the lighting up of the festive Christmas tree.

PostCrosser Jakub sent this card and used 2 copies of the 2014 Christmas Stamp.

Time now for a little music lesson. The card , from Germany, shows a colour lithograph of an Alfons Mucha work from 1898. It is from his Arts Series . this one is entitled Music. Mucha's series of 4 included Painting, Poetry, Music and Dance. He gave each of the arts a circular backdrop from nature indicating a particular time of day. For this card Music, it is the song of birds at moonlight.

Cora used 1 of 2 se-tenant stamps issued in 2016 showing Moselle, a river flowing through France, Luxembourg and Germany.

I know there are train postcard collectors out there , so enjoy this one. It is an older steam train operating on local lines around Kourim, about 45 km east of Prague.

Tamara , a young Postcrosser, she's just eleven, used 2 definitives on her card. I wish I had collected postcards since I was eleven. How many would I have by now ? And with very little space to house them.

Now for the last card today, let's end with Fifty Shades of Grey. No not that one, the novel by E.L.James , but Fifty Shades of the Colour Grey. There's no Anastasia Steele and no Christian Grey on this card, just 50 grey colours.

These fifty shades aren't that exciting , are they ? About as exciting as watching paint dry. There it is , that's Adrian's card.

Adrian sent this from Shrewsbury, the 8th happiest place to live in the U.K. No offense to Shrewsbury, but if I have to move it'll be to number 1, Leigh-On-sea - The happiest place in the U.K to live.
Adrian used 1 of the set of 8 , of this year's Christmas stamps.

I know I said that was the last card, well not quite. As I wrote last time , I have received a bunch of Maximum cards from Bruce in South Africa. The 2 for today date from Oct 16, 1987.
The first one is a Mmabatho Air Services aircraft with 2 flight attendants standing by. The stamp is 1 of 4 from 1986 showing Bop Airways, very similar to the card.
The second card has a Luxair jet with passengers deplaning on the tarmac. The stamp again quite similar to the card. Now here's the 2 cards.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Time for another postcard update. Just a few cards this time. Not my usual large update. First up is a card from Malaysia - Faces of Malaysia. - a melting pot of races and cultures.

This is a card from Ana, I'm not quite sure where she is at present, last I knew she had moved to China. I don't know if she was just vacationing in Malaysia or passing through on her way somewhere else. But it was nice to get a card from here again.

Ana used a Fauna/Wildlife stamp but I couldn't find any information about it. Here it is though..

Today's second card is a Christmas Postcard, wishing me a Very Merry Christmas. In this part of the world special occasion postcards are quite rare, we mostly have the typical touristy cards only. So it's nice to get one like this.

Next up is a PostCrossing card from Bangkok, Thailand. It's a look at Temple of the Dawn, Wat Arun in Bangkok.

PostCrosser Ben used a nice selection of Thai stamps on this one.
On the left is a 2008 stamp celebrating the 125th Anniversary of the Thai Postal Services. In the top center is a 2016 Vesak Day stamp with the phrase - Conquer anger by love. On the right is another 2016 stamp highlighting Thai Heritage Conservation. The middle stamp is one more of the 125th Thai Postal Services issue. The bottom stamp is from 2016 and celebrates World Post Day.

Here's a card that says Welcome to Kyrgyzstan, and I do believe those are yurts on the card.

This is another Kyrgyz Express Post card sent by Johan. Nice Flower stamp with a small dragonfly if you look closely.

Now I want to take time to acknowledge a number of Aircraft / Airline postcards that I received recently from Bruce. They are all fairly old, some from 1986, 1987 and I believe 1992 or so. Most are Maximum cards from Transkei and Bophuthatswana. I'm just going to have a look at 2 of them today.

First is a SAA (South African Airways ) Boeing 747SP. The South African flag first took to the sky on a B747SP in Feb of 1976. A month later in March, the B747SP set a commercial distance record on its delivery flight from Paine Field in Washington state to Cape Town. In all SAA took possession of 6 B747SP Jumbos.
A beautiful aircraft indeed.

I'll end today with this B747-200 in Olympic Airways livery. Another fine looking aircraft.

There you have it. Another update in the books. Today thanks go out to Ana, Gerda, Ben, Johan and Bruce for all these fine cards.
Hope you enjoyed today's cards and stamps , if you did , be sure to drop back again soon. Take care.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Hello again. I just want to say again, sorry for the poor layout of the last update. I know it was horrible and I just hope I don't have a repeat again today. I still don't know what really happened. I do think though that it had something to do with my other blog called My Look At East Lake. The layout was a lot like that one. Anyway I'm hoping for better results today. Now, it's on to postcards.

Well back around the middle of October I prepared 6 postcards and mailed them off to Antarctica. Two went to McMurdo Station, two went to Amundsen Scott South Pole Station and the last two went to Palmer Station via Punta Arenas, Chile.

Four of the cards have arrived back from Antarctica., and you're about to see them . I didn't have actual Antarctica cards so I improvised with what I had. I wanted all the cards to have some snow, maybe a glacier and maybe a mountain , but you'll have to pardon the polar bears on one card. I applied my address and the stamps , and off they went.

The next two to arrive were from Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Here's the first one -

The stamps and markings, a little different on these.

The 3 stamps in upper right are the ones I put on. They are from the 2014 Vintage Circus set of 16. Also added in the South Pole Station post office - an international Local Post Stamp, which reads - All Paths Lead NORTH, South Pole Antarctica, Postage Paid to Nearest Mail Receptacle. A wonderful addition to the card, I haven't seen one of these before. The cancellation has a map with the station's location at 90 degrees south, and its elevation of 9300 Ft.

The second card from South Pole Station -

The only difference on this one is the 3 stamps I added. They are again from the National Parks set.

Hopefully the two I sent to Palmer Station will arrive soon.

Now here's a few more cards from other exotic locals.
First up is Monaco. I don't have many cards from Monaco, just 3 or 4 in 10 years of collection, so this one is quite welcome. Actually the first card in my collection, number 1 , was from Monaco.
This latest one is a bird's eye view of the city-state.

Jean Pierre used a nice large Art stamp from 2015. Nice handstamp from the Museum of Stamps and Coins in Monaco.

Greetings from Ghent are next . Ghent is a city in the Flemish region of Belgium. On the left side of the card is the Belfry of Ghent.

Johan used the Horseback Shrimp Fishing stamp from 2015.

The Scottish Highlands are to be found on this next card. Over Loch Inchard from Badcall, near Kinlochbervie, towards Arkle and Ben Stack, Sutherland, The Highlands of Scotland.

The next card is from over there too, but England this time. It is the Great Hall in Hampton Court Palace, located in Richard upon Thames, Greater London. This royal palace is one of only two surviving palaces owned by King Henry VIII. The Great Hall was built between 1532 and 1535 and is the last medieval great hall built for the English monarchy. The Great Hall has a carved hammer-beam roof. During Tudor times, the Great Hall was the most important room in the palace.

David used a recent Great Fire of London stamp and secured a lovely Royal Mail cancellation.

Now a card from Alaska, The Last Frontier. With this card you can learn a lot about Alaska - its history, population, its state bird, its highest point and see its state flag and a map of the state.

This card originated from Kipnuk, Alaska. Kipnuk is located in the south west corner of Alaska and had a population of 639, at least in 2010. This card is from Brenda, a school teacher in Kipnuk who's doing a class project of receiving postcards and having discussions with her young students about where the card came from. I've sent her a number of cards from different locations, it's great helping out the young students.
Now, if any of you readers want to send Brenda and her students a card, that would be great. Her address is Brenda Zera, P O Box 197, Kipnuk, Alaska, U.S.A. 99614
Just tell her , Glenn sent ya.
Oh yes, here's the stamps on Brenda's card. On the left is the Vintage Tulip 2 oz. rate stamp, issued June 1, 2015. On the right , is 1 of 20 in the Pets set issued this year. Shown on this stamp are parakeets.

Well what do you know, here's my 4th Manhole Cover postcard. I wonder if I'm the only collector of these fine postcards. This one is a manhole cover in Hiroshima city, Japan. It features paper cranes that represent prayers of peace.

Barbara from the Netherlands took this picture of the manhole cover on her recent Japan trip and then made it into this postcard.
She used 2 stamps from 2016 , on the left is 1 of 10 in a set of Pictures of photographer Ed van der Elshken. On the right is the 2016 stamp for Stamp Day.

Just 3 more cards to go. Do I do too may cards in an update ? What do you think ? Drop a comment and let me know.

Antwerp on a card is next. The port city is Belgium's second city and biggest port and without a doubt, the country's capital of cool. The city has long been a powerful draw for fashion moguls, art lovers and diamond dealers. In the mid 16th century it was home to superstar painter Pieter Paul Rubens. Antwerp is on the River Scheldt and in 1920 the city hosted the Summer Olympics.

Gerda used 4 stamps, 3 of which I was not familiar with before. The 3 stamps on top are from a 80 stamps set issued in 2000. They are part of a series called " The 20th Century in 80 Stamps " . Let's
not forget the Owl stamp , it was issued in 2009.

My second last card is from Sri Lanka. It is Beruwela Light, located on Barberyn Island offshore from the west coast of Sri Lanka. The lighthouse is a 34 m high round white conical granite tower. It was completed in November 1889.

It's kind of strange getting a lighthouse postcard from Ravindra , as this is one of the themes that he collects. Usually this is what people are sending him. Maybe I should restamp this card and mail it back. Just kidding. I'm glad to have it.
Ravindra used 4 Flower stamps from a 2016 set of 12. And best of all they received a Socked-On-The-Nose cancel. I love when that happens. As a stamp collector, that's the way all stamps should be cancelled. A guy can dream , right ?

Now the last card. Other than the Antarctic cards, I started with a card from Jean Pierre, and now I'll end with a card from Jean Pierre. This one arrived from Nice , France - sunny Nice on the French Riviera. The city is the fifth most populous city in France and is located on the south east coast of the country. Nice is just 13 kilometres from Monaco.

Jean Pierre used a 2016 definitive of Marianne, a national symbol of France, an allegory of liberty and reason, and a portrayal of the Goddess of Liberty.

There it is, I'm all done. A good update if I do say so. Thanks for cards going out to the Postmasters at McMurdo Base, South Pole Station, Jean Pierre, Johan, Bruce, David, Brenda and her students, Barbara, Gerda, and Ravindra.
I hope this update has a little better format than the last . I don't think I hit any keys or buttons that I shouldn't have, so hopefully all is well. Take care, and do come back.